Makin bacon

[az_que]

I'm making some bacon per meathead's maple bacon recipe. Only one problem: my pork belly is frozen. I just could not locate any unfrozen, uncured, un sliced belly so I settled for uncured, unsliced, and frozen. Should I let this thing thaw off in room temp? In the fridge? Go ahead and put it in a bag with curing solution while frozen and place in the fridge?

[Jon Solberg]

az, I don't know anything about making bacon but I say thaw that in the fridge. Room temp thaw in my mind is bad. Someone can give you some insite on curing while froze. I cant speak to that.

[Huskee]

Check out Meathead's Meat Thawing page here. As far as curing it while it thaws...not sure on that. I will forward this to Meathead & Dr Blonder to see if they have input, but I'd err on the side of safety and say cure once it's thawed. Let's see what the experts think...

[Jerod Broussard]

Definitely NO thawing at room temp.

[Meathead]

Read my article on thawing. Never thaw at room temp. Patience. When it comes to cured meats, don't fool around.

[bbantel]

AZ_que, if you live in Arizona, I ran into the same problem! Nobody sells fresh here. Thaw it out in the fridge completely.. Overnight worked for me. Then start the cure process. I did the maple bacon, then experimented with a coffee-maple bacon. Both were great (I liked the coffee a bit better). I wrote about it here. Good luck! It's good eating, all my guests raved about it.

[docblonder]

You can thaw in the brine in the fridge- NEVER at room temp.

[az_que]

Thanks for the replies everyone. I let it rest in the fridge for a day and then put it into the curing solution.

Looking forward to smokin some bacon!